In 1906 San Francisco burned. It was not the earthquake that destroyed the City. It was the fire that was started by the earthquake. The water lines, ruptured by the quake, were bone dry. The San Francisco Fire Department had no water to fight a conflagration. The department learned a lot.
Since then the San Francisco Fire Department has been the symbol of fire service excellence, not because they chose to be, but because of the quality of service they have given to the people of San Francisco.
Very early this morning the SFFD responded to a fast-blazing three-alarm fire that was engulfing a dust-dry 100-year-old wood-frame Victorian apartment building. The fist report of a fire came into SFFD dispatch about 3:20 AM.
Immediately firefighters jumped to their feet, donned their protective gear, rushed to their engines or trucks and, with a blast of the siren and flashing lights, they raced to the scene, set-up their hoses and began fighting an extremely difficult fire. By 4:50 AM the fire had been contained. It took the SFFD only 90-minutes to contain the fire and protect the neighborhood. More than 90 firefighters continued to battle the blaze and it was brought under full control in about two-hours.
It took these remarkable firefighters just 90 minutes to contain a roaring, blazing, flame-leaping three-alarm fire in an old wood-frame building that was going up with vicious speed.
The San Francisco Fire Department: Number One in the country.
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1 comments:
usual disclaimer first ;)
I respect firefighters a lot and they are unsung heroes, but (ok, now criticism) it makes me nervous to read old stories like this one from 2005 in Wired about new fire fighting techniques and how the SFFD rejects trying out the new ideas:
story here
but then again, we both know the FD has had weird managers and their own drama
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